Texas waistlines aren’t increasing, but they aren’t decreasing either, according to the 2013 “F as in Fat” report, a product of the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

But the state’s collective waistline is holding steady but the obesity rate remains high at 29.2 percent, the report found, news that Abilene dietitian Beth Ann Oldiges called “huge step” in the right direction.

“(The rate) has been consistently increasing for several years, and so the first step is halting it,” Oldiges said. “ ... I think we’re finally on the swing toward reduction.”

Stabilizing rates of obesity since 2005 may signal that some prevention efforts are starting to yield results, the report’s authors said.

But obesity rates still remain extremely high throughout the country, with every state at least above 20 percent, and 13 states — led by Louisiana at 34.7 percent and Mississippi at 34.6 — over 30 percent.

Colorado had the lowest obesity rate, 20.5 percent.

By comparison, no state was above 14 percent in 1980, and in 1991, no state was above 20 percent.

Being overweight increases a person’s risk of heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, certain cancers, and other serious medical conditions that impact quality of life, said Christine Mann, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of State Health Services, making the issue a “serious concern.”

Contributing factors are “complex and varied,” ranging from limited access to healthy foods to limited physical activity to consumption of high calorie/low nutrient foods to socioeconomic status.

The diversity of contributing factors, Mann said, means the state has a “variety of approaches to combat obesity.”

“Our primary focus is to create policy and environmental changes to help increase physical activity, encourage the consumption of fruits and vegetables, increase breast-feeding and to decrease television viewing, consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and high calorie/low nutrient foods,” she said.

Oldiges said that she feels the nation as a whole has been caught up in lifestyle that encourages convenience foods that are both fast and fattening.

“We’ve just kind of blown up,” she said. “And we really need to start getting back to the basics and eating healthier. To do that, it’s going to take time.”

That’s especially true in the south, she said, where “it’s in our culture to cook and prepare foods a certain way.”

But technological tools that help track weight, exercise and calories, as well as a general overarching message that each calorie does count, have helped removed a sort of “ignorance is bliss” approach to eating, she said.

“I think it’s all about awareness,” Oldiges said, citing restaurants putting caloric and other health information on their menus as an example of positive change. “Most of the time people just don’t know how much they’re consuming.”